Hampton Roads Peace Conference

Hampton Roads Peace Conference, meeting held on Feb. 3, 1865, on board the Union transport River Queen in Hampton Roads, Va., with the object of ending the Civil War. President Lincoln and Secretary of State William H. Seward represented the Union, and A. H. Stephens, R. M. T. Hunter, and J. A. Campbell, the Confederacy. The meeting was brought about through the efforts of Francis P. Blair (1791–1876). Unofficially, but with Lincoln's knowledge, Blair had discussed the possibility with Jefferson Davis of restoring peace through a united opposition to European intervention in Mexico. Lincoln's terms—reunion, acceptance of emancipation, immediate cessation of hostilities, and the disbanding of all Confederate forces—proved unacceptable to the South, and the conference failed.